• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

2

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

3

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

1

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

2

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

3

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
TechMicrosoft

4 Big Takeaways from Satya Nadella’s Talk at Microsoft Build

By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Jonathan Vanian
Jonathan Vanian
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 7, 2018, 3:35 PM ET

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is trying to distinguish the business technology giant from its technology brethren by focusing on digital privacy.

That’s one of the takeaways from Nadella’s opening talk on Monday from Microsoft’s annual Build conference for developers in Seattle, Wash. This year, Microsoft’s big coder conference was sandwiched between Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference last week and Google’s upcoming Google I/0 event, starting later this week.

Part of Nadella’s opening talk centered on user privacy, which Nadella referred to as “a human right,” echoing Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent public comments in the aftermath of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. Both Microsoft and Apple (AAPL) stand to benefit and win public trust if they can portray their companies as bastions of user privacy compared to companies like Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG).

All of these giant tech companies are amassing large quantities of data that they in turn use to improve their respective artificial intelligence technologies—these AI technologies are then used to create more compelling products, like Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant, for example. But the controversy over political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtaining Facebook user data highlights the issues these tech companies face as they must both protect the consumer and business data they collect while using that same information to improve their own services.

One way Nadella is attempting to convince businesses that Microsoft (MSFT) can improve its AI technology while protecting user data is by promoting a computing technique called homomorphic encryption. Although still a research-heavy technique, homomorphic encryption would presumably let companies analyze and crunch encrypted data without needing to unscramble that information.

Nadella is pitching the technique as a way for companies to “learn, train on encrypted data.” The executive didn’t explain how far along Microsoft is on advancing the encryption technique, but the fact that he mentioned the wonky terms shows that the company is touting user privacy as a selling point for its Azure cloud business.

Here’s a few more takeaways from Nadella’s talk:

Microsoft likes Drones and Chips

The business technology giant signed a partnership with Chinese drone-giant DJI and mobile computing giant Qualcomm.

Under the drone partnership, DJI will use the Azure cloud computing service as a “preferred cloud provider” (it can still choose competing cloud companies like Google, example), and will create a software development kit that works with Windows 10. The goal is for coders to build Windows apps that can be used during corporate drone projects, like using the robots to take pictures of rooftops for damage inspections. So the next time a company flies a drone out to look at a rooftop, the drone can take video and send it back to the laptop for someone to analyze.

Microsoft also partnered with Qualcomm (QCOM) on a new software developer kit to let coders build devices like cameras that can recognize objects. This initiative seems similar to Amazon’s (AMZN) DeepLens camera technology.

Microsoft Believes in AI and Ethics

Nadella briefly mentioned the company’s internal AI ethics team whose job is to ensure that the company’s foray into cutting-edge techniques like deep learning don’t unintentionally perpetuate societal biases in their products, among other tasks.

He said that coders need to concentrate on building products that use “good A.I.,” in which the “the choices we make can be good choices for the future.”

Expect more technology companies to talk about AI and ethics as a way to alleviate concerns from the public about the tech industry’s insatiable appetite for data.

He also talked about Microsoft’s Project Brainwave computer chip initiative that is now available for Azure coders in a test or preview version. Nadella pitched Project Brainwave as a way for developers to perform AI tasks quicker by using the company’s specialized chips (FPGAs) built by Intel. He bragged about Microsoft’s specialized chips when compared to Google’s own custom chips (TPUs), saying that they were faster at some tasks, a claim the search giant would likely differ on.

Project Brainwave is getting much more interesting. "5X lower hardware latency than (@Google) TPU". Will have to dig in on that claim. Also now moves to the edge. #MSBuild pic.twitter.com/gUwV7Yfy1a

— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) May 7, 2018

The Kinect is Back

Microsoft may have killed its Xbox Kinect video game sensor in 2017, but the body-tracking device has since been reborn as a business tool.

Nadella talked about Microsoft’s Project Kinect for Azure, and said that the new hardware device has “some of the best skeletal tracking object recognition,” which could make it useful as a tool to incorporate on drones so they can avoid obstacles. The new Kinect won’t be sold to consumers, but developers can sign on to receive a Kinect hardware kit that they can use to build their own tracking devices.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Microsoft Pledged $25 Million to AI for Accessibility Grants

Nadella ended his talk by saying that Microsoft will debut a five-year program in which the company will give $25 million worth in grants to researchers, non-government organizations, and developers so they can build AI-powered apps to help the lives of the disabled. These types of apps would do feats like look at the image of a signpost, and then say what the signpost means out loud to a person with hearing disabilities.

The purpose of the grants is “so you can bring your ingenuity and passion to help the 1 billion-plus people in the world who have disabilities,” Nadella said.

About the Author
By Jonathan Vanian
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jonathan Vanian is a former Fortune reporter. He covered business technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data privacy, and other topics.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

‘It’s crazy’: SpaceX could set records as the least shareholder-friendly public company of all time
Investingfinances
‘It’s crazy’: SpaceX could set records as the least shareholder-friendly public company of all time
By Shawn TullyMay 22, 2026
1 minute ago
dario
Startups & VentureAnthropic
Inside the fraud-ripe feeding frenzy to snag Anthropic shares while the company remains private
By Allie GarfinkleMay 22, 2026
1 minute ago
Elon Musk puts one hand to his chin and he looks up. He is in front of a blue "World Economic Forum" background.
InvestingSpaceX
‘SpaceX is his new baby at the expense of Tesla’: Elon Musk’s IPO could be bad news for his EV maker, investors warns
By Sasha RogelbergMay 21, 2026
10 hours ago
matthew prince
AILayoffs
Cloudflare posted record revenue, then cut 20% of its workforce. CEO Matthew Prince says AI has made an entire category of workers obsolete
By Jake AngeloMay 21, 2026
10 hours ago
Prakash Arunkundrum, HP’s first-ever chief strategy and transformation officer, bets edge AI will help companies ‘bring the token cost down’
AIConsumer electronics
Prakash Arunkundrum, HP’s first-ever chief strategy and transformation officer, bets edge AI will help companies ‘bring the token cost down’
By Angelica AngMay 21, 2026
10 hours ago
malaysia
CybersecuritySocial Media
Malaysia slams ‘grossly offensive, false, menacing and insulting’ TikTok memes about its king
By The Associated PressMay 21, 2026
12 hours ago

Most Popular

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
Success
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
By Preston ForeMay 20, 2026
2 days ago
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
2 days ago
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
Success
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
By Preston ForeMay 21, 2026
16 hours ago
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
Workplace Culture
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
By Sydney LakeMay 20, 2026
1 day ago
A 'proudly autistic' workplace expert says putting neurodivergent employees in a typical office is like dropping a polar bear in Austin, Texas
Conferences
A 'proudly autistic' workplace expert says putting neurodivergent employees in a typical office is like dropping a polar bear in Austin, Texas
By Tristan BoveMay 20, 2026
1 day ago
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
Future of Work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who's going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
5 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.